“To everything there is a season.” There is “a time to keep silence, and a time to speak;” a time to be still, and a time to act; and it is the duty of the careful watchman of the Lord, to be ever on the alert in watching the rapid progress of God’s providence; to be silent when it is the time for stillness; to speak, and speak plainly, when he deems it to be the time for utterance. It is a conviction of this, which has led to the commencement of the present course of sermons. There has never been a period since the days of the Reformation, in which greater efforts have been made for the advancement of the influence, and power, of the Church of Rome; agents have been multiplied in every direction; the order of Jesuits has been revived; and a zeal has been shown in all branches of their efforts, which would reflect honour on a better Surely, then, the time is come to speak. Surely the watchman is bound to sound the note of warning. Surely the whole company of God’s believing people should know well the reason of the hope that is in them, that they may be able to take their place with boldness in the armies of the Lord; and, in the last great fearful struggle against Antichrist, be found standing stedfast, amongst the fearless, faithful, followers of the Lamb. It is my intention, therefore, to preach a short course of sermons on some of the leading principles of our protestant church. It will be my endeavour rather to set forth the truth than to occupy your time in exposing error. God’s people come here to be fed with the bread of life, and they must not be robbed of their daily food by the introduction of cold and cheerless controversy. Our constant desire and prayer to God for you all is, not that you should be subtle controversialists, but well instructed and practical Pray for me, dear brethren, that my intention may be carried into effect. Pray that the spirit of the living God may himself direct me in this effort for his glory! Pray for us, as we pray for you, “that speaking the truth in love, we may grow up unto him in all things.” Now the controversy between the church of England, and that of Rome, hinges mainly upon one great turning point, namely this, they deny the Bible to be the only rule of faith, and appeal to other writings as a sufficient authority in their statements of sacred truth. To the Bible, then, as the rule of faith, we must direct our first attention, and will endeavour to point out, I. Its supreme authority. II. Its complete sufficiency. III. Its clear intelligibility. I. First, then, for its supreme authority. There is no occasion now to enter into proofs of its inspiration. That all scripture is given by inspiration of God, we may regard as an admitted truth: we are not dealing with the infidel, but with those who profess to believe the Scriptures: we are to receive it “not as the word which man’s wisdom teacheth, but which the Holy Ghost teacheth:” to listen to it, “as it is in truth, the word of God.” All that we are concerned with now is the supreme authority, which, being inspired, it possesses over man. Our object is to point out, that as the word of God, it has absolute authority in all its statements of divine truth, and that just as the written Now, we fully admit that the Church of Rome does not openly deny the supreme authority of Scripture, but it virtually sets it aside by two principles: the one, that it is not complete; the other, that it cannot be understood without the interpretation of the Church. We must examine, therefore, II. Its complete sufficiency. The idea taught by the Church of Rome is, that there are two channels of divine truth, two streams conveying the same water, the written, and the unwritten word, the written found in the Bible, the unwritten, in the traditions and decrees of the Church. “Holy Scripture containeth all things necessary to Salvation: so that whatsoever is not read therein, nor may be proved thereby, is not to be required of any man, that it should be believed as an Article of the Faith, or be thought requisite or necessary to salvation. In the name of the Holy Scripture we do understand those canonical books of the Old and New Testament, of whose authority was never any doubt in the Church.” 1. And is not this evident from the direct statements of the word of God itself? Look only at the passage from which our text is taken, v. 15. The Holy Scriptures “are able to make thee wise unto salvation through faith which is in Christ Jesus.” They are sufficient, then, for the heavenly wisdom of the people of God; nothing more is needed; they contain God’s truth, and make men wise in his wisdom. But this is not all: follow on the passage: “All Scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness.” And what is the result? “That the man of God may be perfect, throughly furnished unto all good works.” Who shall presume to say, then, that the written word is not sufficient? There is enough in it to form a perfect character, to leave nothing wanting in the furniture of the religious mind. When it says, “They are able to make thee wise unto salvation,” it teaches that they reveal all that can be needful to make Christ’s coming kingdom 2. But, even, if we had no such direct statement, we have ample proof of the completeness of the Bible in the simple fact, that there is nothing else inspired. If there be a void left, it must remain unfilled for ever. If there be a chasm, the whole world can never close it. For if there were deficiencies in the Bible, to whom should we go to supply the defect? To the Fathers? They were holy, devoted, fervent men, and multitudes amongst their number counted not their life dear unto them, if only they might fulfil the ministry, which they received of the Lord. But they were men after all, fallible, and often failing men; they never pretended to inspiration; they knew far too much both of themselves and God to presume to say of their own writings, “Thus saith the Lord.” They never claimed either inspiration or infallibility. To whom then shall we go? To councils? But they were human too, they were assemblies of fallible men, so fallible, that in one instance the whole church was actually induced to decide against the divinity of our blessed Lord. This was the case, when the whole body of the Church, bishops, priests, deacons, and laymen, were all arrayed against Athanasius, and Athanasius alone stood forth as the champion for truth. Athanasius was against the world and the world against Athanasius. To whom then shall we go? To the Pope? But he too is a man, and as too III. Its clear intelligibility. It is not enough, that the Scriptures are sufficient and complete. For practical purposes they must be within the reach of common men. Now the Church of Rome takes the Bible out of the hands of private Christians. They acknowledge the authority of Scripture, but add that the church alone has the power to interpret it: they say there are many difficulties, and that it requires the church’s interpretation to unravel the path of life. At the same time we must not deny that there are difficulties in the Scriptures. Its subject is infinity, its range eternity, its author God; and it would be folly to suppose that poor, frail, shortsighted, and shortlived man, should be able at a glance to measure the unfathomable depths of God’s unexplored wisdom. Nor are we to underrate the high importance of the sacred ministry. It was the gift of our blessed Lord after his ascension. 1. See the use made of Scripture in the time of inspiration. Look at the well known case of the Bereans, Acts xvii. 11: they brought Paul himself to the test of Scripture; a set of laymen went daily to their Bibles to see if the man of God himself were true, and for this, which would be mortal sin in the Church of Rome, they were actually commended by the Holy Ghost, for a “These were more noble than those in Thessalonica, in that they received the word with all readiness of mind, and searched the Scriptures daily to see if these things were so.” The Berean laymen, therefore, were right, when they studied their Bible as the rule of faith. Take again the case of Timothy. Timothy, we know, was a remarkable man. St. Paul loved him as his own child, and always spoke of him as his son. He was to Paul what John was to Christ. The grace in his heart was of early growth; he was one of those chosen few, who were believers from their youth. But mark his early history. He lived at Lystra, a heathen city: his father was a heathen, yet Timothy knew his Bible well: he had learned it of his mother, as she too from hers. Here then we have a little band of Bible students in the midst of a heathen city: it consisted of two women and one little boy. And yet we are to be told that the bible does not speak plainly to common people, that it cannot 2. Or refer to the purpose for which the book was written. The Lord said to Habakkuk, And now add to this the declared purpose for which the Holy Ghost dwells amongst men. He is “the Spirit of truth,” And now observe the following pastoral letter from the Romish bishops and archbishops in Ireland. Having received a letter from Pope Leo the 12th, dated May 1824, addressed to all Patriarchs, Primates, Archbishops, and Bishops, and they conveyed the substance of it to the Irish priests in the following words. “Our holy Father recommends to the observance of the faithful, a rule of the congregation of the Index, which prohibits the perusal of the Sacred scriptures in the vulgar tongue, without the sanction of the competent authorities. His holiness wisely remarks that more evil than good is found to result from the indiscriminate perusal of them on account of the malice or infirmity of men. 3. But again, look at the practical experience We have found, then, that the Bible is of supreme authority, complete sufficiency, and clear intelligibility. And now, dear brethren, what a deep sympathy should we feel for the laity of the Church of Rome! One fact may illustrate their position. When two members of the deputation of the Church of Scotland to the Jews arrived at Brody, on the borders of Austrian Poland, every book was taken from them, even their Hebrew and English Bibles. Being sealed up they were sent on to Cracow, and delivered to them when they quitted the Austrian dominions. On pleading for their English Bible, the only answer was, “It is not allowed in Austria.” Thus are the bulk of the people kept at a distance from that clear and lucid stream. The church, like the painted window, stands between them and the pure light of heaven. Who can wonder, then, that there are errors and superstitions? Who can be surprised to see them bend before the Virgin, when they are thus kept back from Christ? We should not despise them, but pity them: we should weep for them, as our lord wept over Jerusalem: we should pray for them, as he prayed upon the cross, “Father forgive them, for And there is a lesson here for ourselves too, dear brethren. We must remember that it is not enough to belong to a church which puts the Bible into our hands, or to listen to a ministry which appeals to it as the rule of faith. We must make it our own; we must take it to ourselves as our birth-right. It is not enough that we possess the printed book, it must be also written on the understanding by careful, diligent, persevering study; and on the heart by the pen of the Holy Ghost himself. He is but a poor Protestant that neglects his Bible. Nay, more, he is but a poor Christian, for he that knows little of his Bible can scarcely fail to know still less of God. Let us, then, be stedfast Bible Christians, devoted Bible students. Let us determine that, God giving us grace, we will know Christ as our God reveals him, know him as our own Redeemer, as our own Advocate, as our own Lord and King, and let us never rest content till we can say with the prophet “Thy word was found and I did eat it: and thy word was unto me the joy and rejoicing of my heart.” |